Most know Arun Gulab Gawli as the Gandhi topi-wearing soft-yet-firm speaker who turned politician following years of being one of the most notorious goons of Dagdi Chawl. But this one delves into his mind to draw the twisted logic that determined his decisions and actions, and all this without glorifying the gangster or celebrating his killings. Some discard biopics as a mere retelling of events in a person’s life. Tick all the boxes, depict the period and circumstance with some authenticity and the job’s done. But Ashim Ahluwalia also tells this story without narrating it (aside from a few voiceover parts to bridge sequences) by merely furnishing events which collectively rationalise his inglorious yet fascinating life.

The film unfolds when Daddy was just Arun (Arjun Rampal). Out of a job and down on luck, he resorts to petty crimes — smuggling, looting and the like. The first time he’s picked up is when the handkerchief slips from his face while brutally stabbing someone. But none of the witnesses identify him since a certain bhai (Farhan Akhtar) recognises the utility Arun and his boys — Rama (Rajesh Shringarpore) and Babu (Anand Ingale) can deliver. And while they subsequently execute several jobs for him, Arun’s aspirations to go out on a limb for a larger share of the pie requires crossing his employer. Over the course of this journey, he’s let down by his acquaintances, the brunt of which is sometimes borne by his closest friends and relations. The film also furnishes a cop, Inspector Vijaykar (Nishikant Kamat) who’s constantly tuned on to Arun as if his life’s sole motive was to close in on him. The gangster also finds love in Zubieda (Aishwarya Rajesh) and while the film invests little on this plot, it conveys his desire to be a family man. In a scene, when his cronies arrive with samples of “Chinese maska”, he’s humouring his daughter. As he picks up the automatic weapon to check it, we have him with a gun in one and a rattle in another, blatantly expressing the dual roles he juggles.

This works for consciously straying away from seeking empathy for the lead and for constructing events through a neutral lens. And apart from lines such as “
uski sabse badi galti uski gareebi thi”, there’s little that begs to present the man of unscrupulous means as anything but that.

If this was Arjun Rampal’s debut as an actor, he would go on to compete with the best in the years to come. Perennially criticised for his ability to convey a limited range of emotions, Rampal’s found his match — a character who reveals nothing from his demeanour. An opaque operator who lets the trigger do the talking and the knife do the stabbing. But even so, under layers of prosthetics, Rampal packs in a decidedly restrained performance and dare we say, a mature one too. If Nishikant Kamat gave up making films and took up acting fulltime, it would be a great career move. Playing a determined officer of the law, he slips into the character with inimitable passion and his physical transformation ensures you don’t even recognise him. Akhtar as the sitaphal cream-slurping bhai about town is appropriately mellow. In a decisive tone, when dialogues roll out of his mouth like a slow train chugging into a platform, one is assured that he means business.

A still from Daddy

Ahluwalia’s depiction of Bombay in the 70s-90s could be compared to Stranger Things’ reading of life in the Mid-West in the 80s. If this was off, it could reduce the film to costume drama and even render it as a tacky recreation, distracting one from the proceedings. To that count, Ahluwalia ensures nothing comes between him and his story. Most notably Bappi Lahiri’s Zindagi Meri Dance Dance from Dance Dance (1987), envelopes the frame in a hue and mood capable of teleportation. Photography by Jessica Lee Gagné and Pankaj Kumar elevates the film and helps establish tone.

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